Suicide bombers attack Kandahar security office

By
Cid Standifer

Stars and Stripes

Published: March 12, 2014

Three suicide bombers attacked a National Directorate of Security station in Kandahar City on Wednesday, wounding two employees before the attackers were killed in a firefight, according to Afghan officials.

Zia Durrani, a Kandahar police spokesman, said Taliban fighters attacked an NDS office in the Shahidaan Chowk area of the city around noon using guns and hand grenades. Taliban spokesman Qari Yousaf Ahmadi confirmed that the organization was behind the attack.

According to Durrani, the NDS compound used to house an investigation department, but is now used as residential quarters for NDS employees. Two NDS employees sustained minor injuries, but no NDS personnel or civilians were killed, he said.

The NDS is Afghanistan’s domestic intelligence agency, which was set up and trained largely by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

The Taliban has carried out a handful of high-profile attacks on alleged NDS facilities in the past. Last May, Taliban attackers staged a lengthy firefight in Kabul at the sight of a guest house it claimed housed CIA trainers who were helping the NDS. In fact, the house was used by the International Organization for Migration, a nonprofit agency that often works with the United Nations.

NATO coalition officials have touted in recent years their success in wresting Kandahar City from insurgent control. Kandahar, the second-largest city in Afghanistan, lies in the heart of Taliban country and is 10 miles from a farm Osama bin Laden once used as a training camp and home. Periodic attacks demonstrate that while the city may be more peaceful now than in 2011, insurgent activity there is still far from over.